This section is from the book "Practical Materia Medica And Prescription Writing", by Oscar W. Bethea. Also available from Amazon: Practical Materia Medica and Prescription Writing.
Information as to the name and age of the patient should appear on every prescription. The best place for this is at the upper part of the sheet, just under the physician's card and the date (see page 384). Among the reasons for giving the name and age of the patient are the following:
The pharmacist stands as a safeguard between physician and patient to prevent error in dosage. He is often helpless unless he has some idea as to whether the patient is an adult or child and, if a child, how old. If an overdose is prescribed and is dispensed by the compounder, he comes in for a share of the public condemnation, no matter what the circumstances; so, bare justice to the.pharmacist demands that he have all necessary information not only for the patient's protection, but for his own. Few drug-stores use the check system, and if they do a customer's check is often lost; so medicines are usually delivered without protection against confusion unless the name of the patient is given. The author, when a pharmacist, had this lesson impressed upon him by the following incident: Two parties left prescriptions, one for a poison to be used as an insecticide, the other for a tonic for a tuberculous patient. Both prescriptions were to be used"as directed."No name was on either and the insecticide was delivered to the patient for whom the tonic was intended, and the error was not discovered until the package was well on its way to a country home many miles from town. Fortunately, a wild ride on a fast horse prevented possible trouble and a lesson for future use was forcibly impressed.
The name of the patient is necessary on the prescription so that the compounder may put it on the label of the package for identification in the home. Mrs. X and her infant daughter may both be under treatment. They may both be taking 2-ounce mixtures of similar appearance. A dose of the child's medicine may not injure the mother, but a dose of hers might prove fatal to the child.
The prescriber should see that the patient's name is always entered on the label. A physician was recently treating six cases of sickness at one time in the same family. The ages of the patients ranged from one to forty years. It was necessary to give several prescriptions, and on investigation he found the nurse in confusion, as the names of the patients were not on any of the packages. The whole had to be discarded and new medicine ordered.
The convenience of the pharmacist must be considered, and the patient's name on each prescription is a great aid to him in charging his work, identifying the prescription for refilling, and in many other ways.
The name of the patient on the carbon copy retained by the prescriber is of convenience to him in charging his day's work, and is indispensable in filing and keeping his case records.
The present Federal Narcotic Law requires the name of the patient on all prescriptions affected. It also requires the patient's address, and the address should be given on all prescriptions, unless the prescriber knows the patient to be well known to the pharmacist or the prescription is to be delivered and the medicine received by the patient or someone acting for him.
The name of the patient should be the most carefully written part of the whole prescription. If the prescription is left with the patient or family, they usually try to read it and often the patient's name is the only part intelligible to them. If there is an error in the only part that they can read they have some ground for supposing that.there may be errors elsewhere; or, if that part is clumsily written, they cannot be expected to have too much respect for the rest. The patient may well reason:"If I cannot read my own name, how can the druggist read the rest?"The experienced druggist can usually decipher the names of the drugs, the amounts, and the directions from his knowledge of medical usages, but unless a patient's name is a common one or familiar to him, there is no scheme for deciphering it unless each letter is plainly formed. A label carrying a patient's name improperly transcribed is well calculated to dissipate confidence in the contents of the package.
If the patient is a male adult the name should be written, as:
or John Blank (adult); or, a specific title may be given; for example, or Mary Blank (adult).
If the patient is a female adult the name should be written, as:
It is unnecessary to write Mr. John Blank (adult) or Mrs. John Blank (adult). The humbler the patient, the more he appreciates a title. The physician may know the patient as John, but in this democratic country he may prefer the druggist to know him as Mr. Blank. Young girls and young men are sometimes particularly jealous of titles, and there is no objection to prescribing for the young militia officer as Captain Blank or the country justice as Judge Blank. Other departments of human activity should not be allowed to maintain a corner on courtesy or policy.
If the patient is a child the name should be followed by information as to age, as:
The name should never be followed by a figure only, as Mary Blank (3); that might mean either years or months. Mrs. Blank's baby or Baby Blank should never be written, as Mrs. Blank's baby may be one year old today and the dose arranged accordingly, and next year Mrs. Blank may have another baby one month old and get hold of the medicine for the former patient, with unfortunate results. Also the word baby gives only limited information to the pharmacist, as a child often bears the title from the first hour up to five or more years of age.
When the prescription is written for more than one patient, the prescriber may so specify, as:
The prescription may be written for one patient and written instructions left as to the use for the others, as Give John a teaspoon-ful of James's medicine every three hours.
It sometimes happens, as in prescribing for venereal diseases, that it is inadvisable to give much information as to the identity of the patient. In such cases it is still necessary for the druggist to have some aid in rechecking dosage, identifying the prescription, etc., and for the doctor in handling his copies. Probably the best method is to merely use initials and give the age data, as:
This matter has been treated at some length, as it is a detail sadly neglected by the profession; and when it is so easy to do a thing right, there is little excuse for failure.
 
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